What Miami Is Getting With Patty Mills
You can never have enough shooting.
The Miami HEAT have signed Patty Mills, a 6-foot-2 guard who first entered the league back in 2009, and it doesn’t take particularly deep analysis to figure out why. Mills is a career 38.9 percent shooter on 4.4 attempts per game, marks that only 26 players in league history can match. They’re modern numbers, too, in terms of volume, as on that list of 26 only six players – Reggie Miller, Dennis Scott, Ray Allen, Peja Stojakovic, Kyle Korver and JJ Redick – began their career earlier than Mills. Before the past ten years it was far more uncommon for any player to attempt more than 10 threes per 100 possessions. Only six players – Steph Curry, Damian Lillard, Buddy Hield, Tim Hardaway Jr., Paul George and Klay Thompson – have more seasons than Mills’ six with that many pace-adjusted attempts.
In short, Mills is one of the league’s most prolific shooters. The only reason he isn’t higher than No. 49 on the league’s All-Time three-pointers made leaderboard is because he has generally played around 20 minutes a game off the bench, particularly in his 10 seasons with San Antonio which included a title in 2013-14. But Mills isn’t just a spot-up shooter, having more in common with movement guards like Redick and Duncan Robinson than your classic catch-and-shoot guys. You don’t reach the volume he has without being able to get yourself open. You have to imagine Erik Spoelstra can see Mills running off a Bam Adebayo handoff and launching, and even though Mills at 35 years-old isn’t quite the speedster he once was, the balance and footwork it takes to play like he does never goes away, and there’s a second level of spacing and gravity that comes with that style which more stationary shooters rarely ever hit.
On top of it all, Mills – north of 85 percent of his shots are either threes or mid-range jumpers – is a career 43.9 percent shooter out of the corners. Since tracking data went online in the 2013-14 season, Mills is No. 18 in corner threes made.
As with any guard his size defense will be a question, though Mills has generally been more than capable of executing a coverage – he didn’t play so long in San Antonio without being in the right places at the right times – and generally has a solid steal rate, the result of quick hands he uses to swipe low at the ball. As with another recent signing in Delon Wright, it’s unclear whether Mills will get many night-to-night minutes or if he acts as more of an insurance policy – Josh Richardson is out for the season due to shoulder surgery – as the defensive-minded Wright has been mostly the latter through the early weeks of his tenure, but Mills is an impact player even if he’s not on the court, a Tier 1, elite level locker room vibes guy.
“He knows what it takes to be in an organization, he knows what it’s like to build trust and also do it at the highest level. You need a guy like Patty Mills just simply to have the locker room synergized,” said Kyrie Irving during Mills’ time in Brooklyn.
“Patty is without doubt the spiritual leader of our team. He embodies empathy, awareness, the ability to be actionable after he speaks about things. He’s a very special human being,” said Gregg Popovich while Mills was in San Antonio.
When Miami brought in Kevin Love last season he fit into the locker room almost immediately and it’s not difficult at all to imagine Mills doing the same. He’s a high energy, seen-it-all sort of veteran who will come in an shoot threes with volume and efficiency at a moment’s notice. There’s no downside to having a player, and a person, like that on your bench.
